After 40: Bruins 1 – Habs 1

BOSTON — Erik Cole’s second goal of the year at 10:27 and the much anticipated PK Subban-Brad Marchand fight highlighted the middle 20 minutes here at TD Garden. After 40 the Bruins and Canadiens are tied at 1-1.

After nearly two go arounds Marchand and Subban finally dropped the gloves after they both served matching delay of game penalties (first time I’ve seen that occur, I think) late in the second period. Despite the size advantage, Subban could not land many jabs at the smaller Marchand, who would have earned a decision by the judges. Give both of these guys credit, though, they were underneath each other’s skin for so long that they had to drop the gloves the third time around. Both combatants won’t have much left in the tank after they serve their fighting majors.

The Habs came out a much more focused team in the second and outshot the Bruins 18-9 in the middle stanza. Despite stoning Mike Cammaleri on a breakaway moments earlier, Tim Thomas could not fight a screen set up by Mathieu Darche and Cole redirected the shot from defenseman Jaroslav Spacek to even things up midway through the second.

Although the Bruins got the best of the Maple Leafs coming off a back to back in their win last Thursday night, they were unable to take advantage of a Sharks team after playing in New Jersey the night before in their 4-2 loss to San Jose Saturday. The Habs heavily outplayed them in the second period, but maybe Marchand’s fight with Subban will energize the team out of the locker room for the start of the third.

With the Winnipeg Jets ahead 6-4 over the Philadelphia Flyers — who lost to the Habs last night in Montreal — the loser of this game could find themselves in dead last in the Eastern Conference assuming the Jets hold on. Yes I know its early in the year, but who would have thought the defending champs could potentially be in dead last at any point during the season?